I was surprised at how little the lists changed. I don't know why I was surprised. Yet I was happy too, because all I had to do was copy and paste instead of typing the list three times. God's way of telling me this was a stupid post? You be the judge.

Amazing but true:

England has 84% of the UK population, 53% of the UK land area.

Meaningless stat (but it begged to be done):

London has 16% of England's population, 1% of England's land area.

Other fun facts (for those who don't know the definition of "fun"):

Where is the point farthest from the sea in England? Nobody seems to know. I found a claim for farthest to the sea in all the UK (see below) but that wasn't the question. (Note, for those of you who think this means "see," I assure you the question is not asking, "farthest from the pope." K?)

Most distant places in England? Probably Lands End to Marshall Meadows Bay, a distance of (using my American metric skills) about 8.6 km. Give or take.

Long after I had tired of reading the arguments about "place farthest from the sea" I ran across the following from a BBC website. I'll bet this is what you guessed, too. You will note it ignores the question, "... farthest point from the sea in England."

Just outside the quaint village of Coton in the Elms is a small farm.

It is like most other farms in Derbyshire, beautifully nestled among verdant fields and grand trees.

However Church Flatts farm is special.

The Ordnance Survey has calculated it is the furthest point from the sea in all the UK.

To be precise, the identified point is one mile south-east of the farm house occupied by Henry and Joyce Blackwell.

Mrs Blackwell said she had been informed of the farm's special status by the Ordnance Survey, but the only people who showed any interest in the site were occasional ramblers.

So, living so far away, does Mrs Blackwell visit the sea often?

"I don't think I have been to the sea since 1988," she said.

Sadly, that was to identify the body of her mother, who died while holidaying at Skegness.

Mrs Blackwell said she used to visit the beach in the 1970s when her two sons were younger.

"They have grown up now, so we don't have much reason to go to the beach."

Top thirteen whats?Arbitrary boundaries drawn on a map for administrative reasons?Given that Scotland and Wales are both narrower, coast to coast than England, the furthest point from the sea probably remains the same.But seriously, who really cares?

Nope. That's not what I meant, in fact, almost the opposite.The point is that these populations are not those of the cities but of strange constructs such as 'Portsmouth Urban Area' What?Manchester the city, and Greater Manchester, which is an administrative region, most of it NOT in Manchester. "West Yorkshire (Leeds)"... What does that mean? Leeds is one of several cities in West Yorkshire, but the population is... what?Are they quoting the population of the city of Leeds, or the population of West Yorkshire? The lists you quote might look authentic to you, but are meaningless to me, because it's not clear what they're trying to describe. We don't talk of the 'Leeds Area' as a separate region. Do the figures include, say, Bradford, Huddersfield, Wakefield? Halifax? If not, then where are they drawing the imaginary boundary?

Portsmouth Urban Area is well known to me. Portsmouth City with add on bits. It matters not a jot where the boundaries are because these places merge into each other. Once upon a time they may have been pretty little villages. Some of them anyway.

As for furthest place from the sea, it's only really important if you live in fear of all things oceanic. If you're sixty or seventy miles away, then Leviathan is unlikely to come knocking at your door. Architeuthis will not drag you from your bed with his suckered tentacled.I understand the U.S. place furthest from the sea is in South Dakota.

Absolutely. The Department of Obfuscated Statistics has the task of making seemingly simple information ultimately unreliable. Way back in the second world war, they were the people who took the place-names off all the signposts and thus protected us from invasion by german paratroopers dressed as nuns, the current hiding of England's furthest point from the sea, or 'Pole of Inaccessibility' has kept us safe for a number of years from an oceanic squid invasion.Scotland, having no such government department, has been invaded by squid no fewer than three times in the last twenty years.Furthermore, the publication of accurate population figures may render an area more prone to Zombie attack.

Wow - Didn't realise such a post could spark so much vitriol! I personally found them very interesting and would definitely want to know how far places were from the sea, having grown up on the North Sea coast. I remember always being told that no matter where you live in the UK, you're' never more than 100 miles from the sea. Could do with that right about now as I'm stuck in the mid-west USA with nothing but a gargantuan fresh water lake. Just not the same.